Thursday Evenings at All Hallows (Thursday, January 16, 2025)

Welcome to Thursday Evenings at All Hallows.

Both Jesus and the apostles used what were common life experiences at that time to explain and illustrate what they were saying. These experiences may no longer be common experiences today or they may only be common experiences of one or more segments of the population. Or they may be common experiences, but we give little or no attention to them. How many people who live in the suburbs pay attention to their neighbor watering a lawn except when it is a drought and water is scarce, or the neighbor's sprinkler wets them?

Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians is packed with the apostle’s teachings. In this evening message we take a look at one of his teachings and how it applies to every Christian.

GATHER IN GOD’S NAME

Open this link in a new tab to hear Joshua Messick’s composition, EVENTIDE, for hammered dulcimer.

Silence

God is Spirit, and those who worship must worship in spirit and in truth. John 4:24

Let us confess our sins against God and our neighbor.

Silence

Most merciful God,
we confess that we have sinned against you
in thought, word, and deed,
by what we have done,
and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.

For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
have mercy on us and forgive us;
that we may delight in your will,
and walk in your ways,
to the glory of your Name. Amen.

Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us all our sins
through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen us in all
goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep us in
eternal life. Amen.

O God, make speed to save us.
O Lord, make haste to help us.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as
it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
Alleluia.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Sylvia Dunstan’s metrical paraphrase of the Phos hilaron.

1 O Laughing Light, O first born of creation,
radiance of glory, light from light begotten,
God self-revealing, holy, bright and blessed,
you shine upon us.

2 Day’s light is fragile, your light is eternal.
We look to you, our light within the shadow.
We sing to you, Creator, Christ and Spirit;
you shine before us.

3 Light of the world, O Jesus, you are worthy!
Giver of life and child of God we praise you.
Hear as the universe now proclaims your glory!
You shine among us.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Christopher Walker’s “The Lord Is My Light” (Psalm 27).

1 The Lord is my light, my help, my salvation.
Why should I fear?
With God I fear no one.
God protects me all my life.
With the Lord what should I dread?

The Lord is my light,
the Lord is my help,
the Lord is my salvation.

2 There is one thing I ask of the Lord that I long for:
all of my days with God to be dwelling,
gazing with awe at the beauty of God,
and in wonder look on God's house.

The Lord is my light,
the Lord is my help,
the Lord is my salvation.

3 I know I will live to see the Lord’s goodness,
now, in this life I'm sure I will see it.
Trust in the Lord, be strong and be brave;
wait in hope for God, our salvation.

The Lord is my light,
the Lord is my help,
the Lord is my salvation.

Silence

God, our light and our salvation,
illuminate our lives,
that we may see your goodness in the land of the living,
and, looking on your beauty,
may be changed into the likeness of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD

A reading from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians.
1 Corinthians 3: 1-22

As a matter of fact, my friends, I could not talk to you as I talk to people who have the Spirit; I had to talk to you as though you belonged to this world, as children in the Christian faith. I had to feed you milk, not solid food, because you were not ready for it. And even now you are not ready for it, you still live as the people of this world live. When there is jealousy among you and you quarrel with one another, doesn't this prove that you belong to this world, living by its standards? When one of you says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos”—aren't you acting like worldly people?

After all, who is Apollos? And who is Paul? We are simply God's servants, by whom you were led to believe. Each one of us does the work which the Lord gave him to do: I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plant, but it was God who made the plant grow. The one who plants and the one who waters really do not matter. It is God who matters, because he makes the plant grow. There is no difference between the one who plants and the one who waters; c For we are partners working together for God, and you are God's field.

You are also God's building. Using the gift that God gave me, I did the work of an expert builder and laid the foundation, and someone else is building on it. But each of you must be careful how you build. For God has already placed Jesus Christ as the one and only foundation, and no other foundation can be laid. Some will use gold or silver or precious stones in building on the foundation; others will use wood or grass or straw. And the quality of each person's work will be seen when the Day of Christ exposes it. For on that Day fire will reveal everyone's work; the fire will test it and show its real quality. If what was built on the foundation survives the fire, the builder will receive a reward. But if your work is burnt up, then you will lose it; but you yourself will be saved, as if you had escaped through the fire.

Surely you know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you! God will destroy anyone who destroys God's temple. For God's temple is holy, and you yourselves are his temple.

You should not fool yourself. If any of you think that you are wise by this world's standards, you should become a fool, in order to be really wise. For what this world considers to be wisdom is nonsense in God's sight. As the scripture says, “God traps the wise in their cleverness”; and another scripture says, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are worthless.” No one, then, should boast about what human beings can do. Actually everything belongs to you: Paul, Apollos, and Peter; this world, life and death, the present and the future—all these are yours, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

The Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God!

Silence

Planting and Watering

In this evening’s reading the apostle Paul introduces the concept of planting and watering, borrowing two terms from gardening and agriculture to describe the roles he and Apollos played in nurturing the faith of the Christians at Corinth.

If you live in the city and have worked in a community garden in an empty lot, worked for the city’s parks department, grown plants on a balcony, or kept a houseplant, you may have some idea what it means to plant and to water. If you have lived in a rural agricultural district like I have or worked on a farm in such a district or even lived in a housing estate or subdivision and grown flowers in the front yard and vegetables in the backyard or rented a council house, a public housing unit, with an allotment and grown vegetables on the allotment, you may have a better idea.

In gardening and agriculture planting involves putting a plant in the ground or in a container of soil so that it will grow. The plant may be in the form of a seed, a bulb, a seed tuber, or the young plant itself. Some plants are first started in a container and then replanted in the ground. Others are started in a seed bed, a garden or field where seeds are initially planted to germinate and grow into young plants, or seedlings. They are then replanted into a different garden or field where they grow to maturity.

Watering involves pouring water onto plants or the soil that they are growing in. Plants need water to grow and some plants like rice, taro, water chestnuts, and watercress grow in water. If a plant does not get enough water to grow, it will become stunted and may sicken and die. Some plants require more water than others.

As Paul is using these terms, he is referring to the preaching and teaching that he and Apollos did to the gatherings of Corinthians who would form the church at Corinth. He is also referring to the spiritual conversations that he and Apollos had with individual Corinthians. He planted the seeds of their faith; Apollos watered the faith that grew from the seeds which he planted.

Paul draws to the attention of the Corinthians that it does not matter who did the planting and who did the watering. What matters is God who causes the plant to grow. He goes onto point to their attention—

“There is no difference between the one who plants and the one who waters; God will reward each one according to the work each has done. For we are partners working together for God, and you are God's field.”

In the 1980s I had a pastor whose hobby was gardening. When it came to the congregation of his church and to the community, he was also a gardener. He planted the seeds of faith where he could and watered the plants that had grown from the seeds of faith others had planted. As well as nurturing people’s faith, he also encouraged their development and use of their natural talents and spiritual gifts in the service of God, in the community as well as in the church. God would use him, a retired pastor, a newly-ordained deacon, and others in the congregation to water my faith.

Plating and watering, however, are not things that just bishops, ordained elders, or presbyters, deacons, and licensed lay pastors and speakers do. They are what all followers of Jesus Christ are expected to do. We are expected to plant and to water too. While we may not occupy a formal position like a Sunday school teacher or a Bible study leader, we can still engage in spiritual conversations with others, with those who do not yet believe and those who are already believers whenever an opportunity presents itself. This can be done in person, over the telephone or Zoom or some other video conferencing platform, by messages sent over the internet, and even letters sent through the mail, as was a common practice in the past.

Planting and watering are an important part of what being a disciple of Jesus Christ is about. Some Christians may be given a small garden plot in which they are to plant and to water; others may be give a large field. In either case, as Paul writes the Corinthians, “God will reward each one according to the work each has done….”

Silence

Open this link in a new tab to hear Owen Alstott’s metrical paraphrase of the Magnificat, “My Soul Proclaims the Greatness of the Lord.”

1 My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord
My spirit sings to God, my saving God,
Who on this day above all others favored me
And raised me up, a light for all to see.

2 Through me great deeds will God make manifest,
And all the earth will come to call me blest.
Unbounded love and mercy sure will I proclaim
For all who know and praise God's holy name.

3 God's mighty arm, protector of the just,
Will guard the weak and raise them from the dust.
But mighty kings will swiftly fall from thrones corrupt.
The strong brought low, the lowly lifted up.

4 Soon will the poor and hungry of the earth
Be richly blest, be given greater worth.
And Israel, as once foretold to Abraham,
Will live in peace throughout the promised land.

5 All glory be to God, Creator blest,
To Jesus Christ, God's love made manifest,
And to the Holy Spirit, gentle Comforter,
All glory be, both now and ever more.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Sylvia Dustan’s metrical paraphrase of the Apostles’ Creed.

1 I believe in God almighty, Author of all things that be,
Maker of the earth and heavens, Keeper of the sky and sea.
I believe in God’s Son, Jesus, now for us both Lord and Christ,
of the Spirit and of Mary born to bring abundant life.

2 I believe that Jesus suffered, scourged and scorned and crucified;
taken from the cross, was buried—true Life there had truly died.
I believe that on the third day Christ was raised up from the grave,
then ascended to God’s right hand. He will come to judge and save.

3 I believe in God’s own Spirit, bonding all the saints within
one church, catholic and holy, where forgiveness frees from sin;
in the body’s resurrection, for the breaking of death’s chain
gives the life that’s everlasting. This the faith that I have claimed.

THE MINISTRY OF PRAYER

The Lord be with you
and also with you.

Let us pray.

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.

That this evening may be holy, good, and peaceful,
We entreat you, O Lord.

That your holy angels may lead us in paths of peace and
goodwill,
We entreat you, O Lord.

That we may be pardoned and forgiven for our sins
and offenses,
We entreat you, O Lord.

That there may be peace to your Church and to the whole
world,
We entreat you, O Lord.

That we may depart this life in your faith and fear,
and not be condemned before the great judgment seat
of Christ,
We entreat you, O Lord.

That we may be bound together by your Holy Spirit in
the communion of all your saints,
entrusting one another and all our life to Christ.
We entreat you, O Lord.

Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River
Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him
with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his
Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly
confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy
Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Be our light in the darkness, O Lord, and in your great mercy
defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love
of your only Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

O God, you manifest in your servants the signs of your
presence: Send forth upon us the spirit of love, that in
companionship with one another your abounding grace may
increase among us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Carl P. Daw, Jr.’s “Gracious Spirit, Give Your Servants.”

1 Gracious Spirit, give your servants
joy to set sin's captives free,
hope to heal the broken-hearted,
peace to share love's liberty.
Through us bring your balm of gladness
to the wounded and oppressed;
help us claim and show God's favor
as a people called and blessed.

2 Word made flesh, who gave up glory
to become our great high priest,
taking on our human nature
to redeem the last and least:
let your courage and compassion
shape and guide our ministries;
as our Savior and our Shepherd,
lead us to the truth that frees.

3 Loving God who birthed creation
from the nothingness of space,
kindling life where all was empty,
turning chaos into grace:
when we feel confused and fruitless,
dawn upon our restless night;
give us faith's imagination,
hope's renewing, love's delight.

4 Triune God, eternal Being,
never-ending, un-begun,
boundless grace and perfect justice,
righteous and forgiving One:
so enfold us in your mercy
that our wills and yours unite;
through us may the world behold you,
find your love, your truth, your light.

Everliving God, whose will it is that all should come to you
through your Son Jesus Christ: Inspire our witness to him,
that all may know the power of his forgiveness and the hope
of his resurrection; who lives and reigns with you and the
Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Gracious God,
you have given us much today;
grant us also a thankful spirit.
Into your hands we commend ourselves
and those we love.
Be with us still, and when we take our rest
renew us for the service of your Son Jesus Christ.
Amen.

In darkness and in light,
in trouble and in joy,
help us, heavenly Father,
to trust your love,
to serve your purpose,
and to praise your name,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE SENDING FORTH OF GOD’S PEOPLE

Let us bless the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

The almighty and merciful God bless us
and keep us now and for ever. Amen.